FTA lambasts parking and quota bans
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• Reconciliation of the needs of transport and amenity would be one of the great problems of the second half of the 20th century, Mr. G. F. Page, president of the Freight Transport Association, said in Birmingham on Thursday. He was addressing the Association's West Midland Division.
The right answer was to take a middle path, said Mr. Page, but he warned against the sort of negative decision which looked likely to emanate from Birmingham's public works committee. This would be a ban on overnight parking of goods vehicles in certain areas, without the alternative facilities which were essential. If private enterprise could not provide night lorry parks then it was the local authority's responsibility to do so.
Mr. Page described the new quota restrictions on the movement of British goods vehicles into France and Italy as bans on export. The Italian quota was nothing more nor less than a lottery, and the same situation was likely to arise soon with France. He was amazed that the British government could remain indifferent. Top-level government action was required; the Ministry of Transport had done its best.
He asked whether our will and negotiating power were so weak that we had virtually to accept the terms which Continental countries thrust at us for their own domestic reasons.
Permitted journeys to Italy were only half what was required and the system ruled out permits for sudden export orders. This was an embargo worse than quantity licensing.